‘Misfits’ in ICU

For Caz’s PhD Download thesis here she explored the culture and influences of doctors and nurses as they provided care to critically ill morbidly obese patients in the intensive care setting.

Morbidly obese patients were found not to fit the physical, medical, and social norms of intensive care practices.

The physical shape of morbidly obese patients did not appropriately fit the different equipment used and relied on specific knowledge of the patient’s body size and shape to adapt care practices and keep patients safe and comfortable.

There were specific language challenges where staff expressed concern about what words were most appropriate to use to describe body mass when in the presence of morbidly obese patients and Caz submitted an article for review around these aspects – we will link to this article when it is published.

Interactions between intensive care staff and morbidly obese patients were socially awkward due to the stigma surrounding obesity and Caz has already co-authored an article about this. Download here

Caz’s PhD was through Victoria University of Welington, New Zealand and was completed in 2015